CAS Question

[Kabobi]

I currently own 2gb (2 x 1 gb) of Patriot Extreme DDR2-800 with CAS 4.

My question is if i were to buy another 2gb of ram identical to this one, except with CAS 5, will i be able to run all 4 sticks at CAS 4?

Also, if i have 4GB of ram do i have to use a 64bit OS? (I currently have XP Pro SP 2 32bit).


My system specs:

Intel C2D E6600
MSI P6N Platinum
2 gb Patriot DDR2-800 CAS4
Geforce 8800 GTS 640Mb

Everything is stock and nothing is overclocked.

 

[jumpman]

well if all the sticks are identical i dont see why you couldn't run them all at CAS 4, though its possible the sticks meant to run at CAS 5 won't run stably with a lower CAS.

And yes, you'll need a 64-bit OS if you want to use all 4gb of RAM. a 32bit OS can handle up to 4gb, but it needs some of those resources for things other than just the RAM. in that case you'd probly end up with around 3.3gb of RAM available

 

[Kabobi]

Also, whats the difference between having 1 set of (4 x 1GB) and having 2 sets of (2 x 2gb)?

The reason i'm asking is because all of the (4 x 1gb) sets come in CAS 5, but you can find (2 x 2gb) sets with CAS 4 and even 3.

The price of 1 set of (4 x 1gb) ($250) is a bit less than 2 sets of (2 x 2gb) ($280).


And finally is there any performance difference between having (2 x 2gb) and (4 x 1gb)?

 

[f61]

Just a general reply here, this was already covered in June.

Considering the price paid, and the fact that you WILL be using a 64bit version of an o/s, its nearly a tie. In general with 2x2Gb you now have two more slots open for 4x2Gb. Vista64 likes 8Gb, even the crappy Home Basic x64 gets speedy. But theres a 2Gbx2 stick for about $230 that makes this comparison moot.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

And if you set the voltage to 1.95 or 2.00V you can set the timings to 4-4-4-12.

f61